Omniverse’s “hook” is the same as most other Ben 10 titles—as Ben, you have the ability to morph into any one of 13 different aliens, each of which have certain unique abilities. Well, insofar as “unique” means giving a different color palate and animation for attacks which virtually carry the same effect. So, if you want to shoot lightning, morph young Ben into Feedback. If you want to shoot fire, switch him into Heatblast. And if you want to be a dude with four arms, turn him into Four Arms. The choice is yours—save for a few aliens that are specific to either young Ben or teen Ben—but no matter who you pick, you’re still going to be tapping the attack button until a given group of opponents goes down.

There are moments when you’ll have to use a specific alien, such as needing Four Arms to climb walls or the LEGO-like Bloxx to create bridges, but even these feel uninteresting due to their being forced upon you at random points throughout the levels. Personally, I stuck with the same rotation of four aliens throughout my entire five-hour playthrough—Omniverse is short, by the way—not only because there’s no incentive to switch things up, but because there’s no real personality to most of these alternate characters anyway.

The best thing I can say about Ben 10 Omniverse is that it works. It’s functional. It’s more of a product than a video game, and as such works as you’d expect any other type of product to. It controls fine, it’s somewhat coherent, and the environments, while barren, are competently strung together. I only experienced one bug during my time with it, but a quick reload swiftly fixed that up. There are even some quick time events during the boss battles that feature kills that at least look satisfying. Kids who buy this expecting nothing more than a chance to control their favorite cartoon character will, in all likelihood, find enough here to amuse themselves for an afternoon or two, although they shouldn’t.

But being competent enough to maybe hold a child’s interest doesn’t equal being a good game. And Ben 10 Omniverse is certainly not that. This is an exercise in tedium, a substandard brawler that exudes laziness at almost every turn. The recommendation will surely be made that Omniverse should be picked up for Ben 10 fans or young children in general, but why would anyone want to subject such potentially creative minds to something so unimaginative? Surely we can do better—if not for us, then at least for the children.

ByJeff Dunn
Lead Contributor
Date: November 26, 2012

RATING OUT OF 5

RATING DESCRIPTION

2.0

GraphicsImagine a cel-shaded art style reminiscent of The Walking Dead, only designed for the PS2. Shoddy production values. Some of Ben’s aliens are designed nicely, though.

3.0

ControlThey work. You won’t be doing much interesting with them, but for what you’re given, they’ll never get in your way.